Mass effect: Empire of the forgotten
by Ashes of the Ranger
Summary: This is what happens when I stay up too late. Takes place just before the Reaper invasion of the Galaxy. Going with that the Turians and Asari alone were enough to defeat Sovereign, and that Garrus had killed Saren. May upload a different version later. Comment/point out mistakes. Danke.
1. Chapter I

It was another normal day on the citadel. Turian gunship's, and Asari escort frigates patrolled around the leviathan of a space station. It was visible, hundreds upon thousands of lights lit each and every inch of the Citadel. Merchants, military personnel and diplomats all came and went during the busy hours of the citadels life. Nearing the 'night' cycle, per say, when things quieted down on the super station, the oddest thing happened.

"Captain, is something wrong?" A young, Asari officer asked.

"What- No, nothing is wrong." L'ian replied. She was worried, something was bugging her. But what was it? She knew she had locked down the C-sec offices, their armory and various other important systems. She couldn't place her finger on it. Was it a gut feeling? She had learned to ignore them. Even when they were right, she couldn't let something so primitive as that cloud her judgment.

"Fetch me another blue drink, would you?" She asked. The name of the drink had slipped her mind at such a late hour. She had made sure that her tone was light, doing her best to hide the fact that she was exhausted. Even she knew she couldn't stay up much longer, and through out her history as a C-sec officer she had pushed herself beyond her own personal limits. Just to ensure the safety of the Citadel, and it's inhabitants.

"Yes ma'am, right away." The younger Asari said, over the course of what felt like Ages, L'ian finally came to a startling realization. One of the many ward arms, it, it suddenly went Dark. Comm chatter started to pick up. The younger Asari eventually returned with her Captains drink, setting it on the near by metallic table. It was strange, the drink was shaking. As if something was tearing at the citadel itself.

"Captain, what's going on? I cannot make sense of anything being said over the comm system." The young, naïve Asari asked.

"I don't-" The entire citadel shook. It wasn't a normal occurrence. In fact, it had never happened before. Another one of the Ward arms went dark. By now, the comms chatter was growing louder and louder. Panic was spreading among the civilians/diplomats and unaware military personnel. Were they being attacked? Why wasn't anything happening?

"Get everyone out of the lower Ward-" She was cut short, the Destiny ascension hailed the Citadel, it's comms open to nearly every channel. Turian, and Asari alike.

"This is the Destiny Ascension. Requesting deployment of garrison forces to the Citadel.. Call back any patrols, center them around the Citadel itself, then have them ready to move to our location." What sounded like an oddly old Asari stated over every channel. Before the Captain could even confirm, or acknowledge that she had received the orders, a loud 'By the Goddess?' was heard, it was the same woman. The entire holo-system lit up. Displaying what the Destiny Ascension's outer camera's were seeing.

A large ship, twice, if not triple the length of the Asari dreadnaught had appeared out of no-where. By far too large for anything Turian made. It would explain why parts of the Ward were without power. What sent a chill up the Captains spine was the fact that they hadn't detected it. The ship was derelict, afloat in space. It's engines barely functioning as it started to move past the Citadel. It's weapons array visible to the naked eye. Guns, hundreds of them aimed at the Citadel. None fired, was it luck? Or was the ship truly unmanned? The ship appeared to be damaged, dozens, if not hundreds of scorch marks plague its outer hull. It seemed to stop, directly next to the Citadel.

"By the Goddess, what is that?" The younger Asari asked. She was scared, her tone, and facial features portrayed it. The Turians who had entered the room behind her were awestruck at the image displayed before them. The ship was more then capable, even in its state to handle anything that they could throw at it.

"I- I don't know." The captain said, she tried hailing the ship, just as the Destiny Ascention did. Over and over, they were met with nothing but silence. The hail was being accepted, but nothing was there. Nothing Asari, or Turian. The image of the bridge showed nothing more then dust caked up along the controls of the ship, papers and various other things along the deck. Whatever had been onboard seems to have vanished.


	2. Chapter II

It had happened in almost an instant. Their pods, opening. The robotic voice of 'Cara' emitting from the very depths of the ship. Her voice quickly changed to that of a booming, almost ear-shattering siren. An average, tall looking Eastern European male stepped out of one of the pods. Clad in what one could mistake for body armor. His helmet was off, his buzz-cut blonde hair was more then likely the most color filled thing in the dark, depressing room. The name 'Adler' imprinted was imprinted onto his armored chest. Others started to emerge from their 'pods', men of various nationalities and ethnicities. The most 'predominate' nations would be Russia, America, Canada, England and Germany. The fact that their ship was adrift, and alarms were blasting in the background didn't worry most of them. They casually moved towards their assigned stations. Slipping his helmet on, Knight cocked his head to the right at an odd angle. "Sound off. Military and Civilian personnel." What came next actually shocked him. Blood curdling scream, followed up by a desperate cry for help.

"We need backup! Xeno presence on the ship- Section C-14! Squads four and ten are cut off-" The sound of gunfire ripping through the radio cut any communication with the stranded transmitter off. After a few seconds past, he started screaming out over his radio. "Hans! Deinhard! Ivan! Jackson! On ME!" He had already found his way to the armory. It was sectioned off. His access card was more then enough to open it. Passing various assault rifles back, her hoisted a single, long barreled light machine gun up. Pulling back on its charging handle; the barrel started to glow. The 'cell' inside humming. The others followed suit, they were armed with smaller, compact assault rifles. Each of them had a 'thermal' clip. Much like his, but on a smaller scale. Storming out of the armory, Alder took point. The Russian, and American directly behind him. His 'brothers' were in the rear, watching the way they came for anything that wasn't natural, or one of them.

"P-please let us go!" The young male begged, the Asari commando's had made short work of the unsuspecting patrol. Despite three of them falling to the hand of the male their group leader had incapacitated. The young male was unaware of his comrades demise. "Detain this one. It is still alive." The lead commando spoke, it's tone as calm, and neutral as it possibly could be. It scared the young boy that they had captured. He had no way of fighting back. Everything hurt, he had taken three rounds to the chest. Unarmored. He struggled to breathe now, let alone fight back. "He will die if we do not hurry." One of the commando's said, the lead having swapped out with them seconds prior to it's statement. Moving to pick him up- A wondrous thing happened. "WEAPONS FREE!" Adler screamed, his voice filled with rage. Bright orange tracers flew through the air, twirling. The rounds impacting on the Asari directly above the dying male. The firefight lasted less then a minute. The very beings that had ambushed the few, unarmored guards had met their end at the hands of a brutal, merciless juggernaut from the East and his comrades.


End file.
